The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew at the UK boasting the world's largest and most diverse plant collections, has welcomed its first-ever interns from Taiwan this year. These interns are participating in National Taiwan University's Overseas Internship Program, which selects undergraduate and graduate students for summer internships of approximately 12 weeks at non-profit organizations, research units, and companies worldwide. They receive guidance from mentors assigned by foreign institutions, with NTU sponsoring most or all of their expenses.
The program accepts students from diverse academic fields and across grade levels. Applicants are required to submit specific internship project details and their professional area of expertise, such as motivation, initial plans, and resumes based on the projects offered by the cooperating units in various countries. The collaborating institutions handle the professional reviews and internship arrangements. NTU assists with visa and other related matters.
Johnny Wu, Head of Global Relations at NTU's Office of International Affairs, mentioned during an interview with the Central News Agency on the 3rd during his visit to the UK that this year, the program has selected 17 students to go to eight countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, France, South Korea, Kenya, and Türkiye. They plan to send around 50 students next year, expanding to Southeast Asia and adding more cooperating regions. He emphasized that NTU aims to increase the proportion of non-profit organizations and research institutions as cooperation partners to encourage students to "care more about the world" and focus on career development beyond their immediate goals. NTU is not looking for immediate results but has set a monitoring period of three to five years to track students' future progress.
He mentioned that the UK played a crucial role in the program's launch. If they had not been able to cooperate with "Kew Gardens" (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) initially, the program might not have been established.
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Read the article: https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202308050021.aspx (Central News Agency)
Organization & Positions: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
